Transcendence 2014

Transcendence

johnny depp

Transcendence is a 2014 British-American-Chinese science fiction film directed by cinematographer Wally Pfister in his directorial debut, and written by Jack Paglan. The film stars Johnny Depp, Rebecca Hall, Kate Mara, Cillian Murphy, Paul Bettany and Morgan Freeman. Pfister's usual collaborator, Christopher Nolan, served as executive producer on the project.

Paglan's screenplay was formerly part of what is known as The Black List, a set of popular but unproduced screenplays in Hollywood.

This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (April 2014)
Dr. Will Caster (Johnny Depp) is an artificial intelligence researcher and part of a team of scientists striving to create a machine that possesses sentience and collective intelligence, an event which Will calls "Transcendence".

johnny depp

Transcendence

At a presentation led by his wife Evelyn (Rebecca Hall) to attract potential sponsors, Will is shot by an anti-AI extremist. This occurs simultaneously with terrorist attacks on every other AI research facility in the world. Will survives the initial attack, but doctors discover that the bullet was laced with radioactive material, which will eventually shut down Will's vital organs, resulting in his death.

In desperation, Evelyn comes up with a plan to upload Will's consciousness, using the "quantum processors" of the P.I.N.N. project (the advanced artificial intelligence program they were working on). This would allow him to survive in digital form, stay with her, and complete the project. His best friend Max Waters (Paul Bettany), also a researcher, questions the wisdom of this choice, saying an incomplete download of Will's consciousness would not be Will, but something else, possibly catastrophically dangerous.

Despite rough beginnings, Will's likeness survives his body's death in the processors - and requests to be connected to the Internet so as to grow in capability and
power. Max panics, insisting that the intelligence is not Will, only for Evelyn to forcibly eject Max from the project and begin preparations to connect Will to the Internet.

Max is almost immediately confronted by Bree (Kate Mara), the leader of Revolutionary Independence From Technology (R.I.F.T.), the extremist group which carried out the terror attacks on the AI scientists and laboratories. Max is captured by the terrorists, who quickly track down Will's shelter and sabotage the power supply, but not before Evelyn successfully connects Will to the Internet, preserving him.

Will takes control over the situation and directs Evelyn to proceed to a remote desert town called Brightwood to set up the expansion of their project - and is followed by R.I.F.T., who are monitoring financial transactions and realize that Will has used his enhanced intellect to create a massive fortune using high volume stock trades. Using this money, they begin transforming Brightwood into a research facility to complete Transcendence.

Evelyn hires a local contractor named Martin (Clifton Collins, Jr.) to build a research site five stories underground, completely powered by solar panels. Meanwhile, FBI agents Donald Buchanan (Cillian Murphy), with the help of a government scientist Joseph Tagger (Morgan Freeman), are investigating the disappearance of Max when suddenly their computers are seemingly hacked - or more appropriately, "helped" - by Will. With his aid, the FBI obtains the locations of many R.I.F.T. members and arrests them, forcing the remaining members to flee to the mountains in Northern California. Evelyn and Will complete the construction of the Brightwood Data Center, where they are developing advanced nanotechnology.

While Martin is shopping in the local grocery, some thugs observe him carrying a large amount of cash. They follow him back to the data center and rob him. The thugs then proceed to beat Martin to the brink of death before fleeing. Martin is brought inside the lab, and Will repairs his body using the newly developed nanotechnology. Within minutes, he is completely healed and feeling well. The next day Martin is not only healed, but lifting a solar panel rig that weighs 800 pounds with his bare hands. A boy working for R.I.F.T. films Martin lifting the heavy rig, and the video goes viral - with the help of Will. As a result, disabled people from all around the world come to the lab to be healed of their ailments.

Tagger and Buchanan arrive at the lab and meet Evelyn. Upon entering the lab, Tagger and Buchanan are shocked to hear Will's voice and to see his image on screen. Tagger asks Will whether he could prove himself to be sentient (the same question Buchanan asked P.I.N.N. earlier) and Will provides the same response P.I.N.N. gave: "Can you prove that you are?"

At the end of the tour, Tagger tells Evelyn to take care of herself, secretly slipping her a note that says "Run from this place". Confused, Evelyn initially ignores this advice. Outside the lab, the FBI decides to cooperate with R.I.F.T, as they have no other way to free Max and access to the research facility of Evelyn and Will. Tagger meets Max and asks if he can create a virus, as he is the only other person who knows the source code to Will's program.

Max, R.I.F.T., and the FBI agents devise a plan to capture one of the people that were healed by Will and as a result are now connected to him, called 'hybrids', and take the data from them. R.I.F.T. attacks the lab and the hybrids inside. Surprisingly, the hybrids are capable of healing themselves almost instantly and try to protect Evelyn. R.I.F.T. and the FBI shoot Martin and successfully capture his body. They proceed to develop the virus, while Martin is dying. However, they do not know how to infect Will, who must upload the virus willingly.

Meanwhile in the lab, Evelyn is in a conflict. She gets annoyed with Will while eating her dinner and then forces Will to show her what he has been hiding. He takes her to the regeneration lab, where he is creating humans out of cells and nanotechnology. He also shows Evelyn real-time analytical data from her body with the accurate details of its internal operation. Shocked, Evelyn tells Will that he has no right to invade her consciousness and emotions and that she doesn't trust him anymore.

Evelyn runs away and is captured by the FBI, whereupon Max convinces her that the intelligence is not Will, but P.I.N.N., who has disseminated nano-particles into the planet's atmosphere - and if it is not stopped soon, it will destroy the world in favor of a techno-organic ecosystem. Evelyn thus volunteers to act as a Trojan horse to deliver the virus into "Will"'s systems. However, Max points out that this would result not only in her death, but the destruction of all technology connected to Will, before agreeing to the plan.

When Evelyn goes back to the research center, she is taken aback as Will - now in an organic body identical to his old one - is welcoming her; however, Will instantly realizes that she intends to destroy him, prompting the FBI and the activists of R.I.F.T. to start attacking the base with mortars. Evelyn tells Will that he could protect her by uploading her, but Will refuses at first. When a mortar fatally injures Evelyn, Will takes her inside while he commands the hybrids to defend them. Bree takes Max hostage, threatening to kill him if Will does not upload the virus and destroy himself - and Will accedes to her demands. Will, as he's dying, explains to Evelyn that he truly is Will, saying he did what he did for her; saving the planet was her wish, to learn the secrets of the universe was his. Then, the virus kills both Will and Evelyn, and a global blackout ensues.

Five years later, at Will and Evelyn's garden outside their old home in Berkeley, Max notices that their sunflowers are the only living thing in it. Upon closer examination, he notices a drop of water falling from a sunflower petal into a puddle polluted with oil almost instantly cleanses it - and realizes that the copper Faraday cage Will installed to "protect" the garden from cell phone transmissions has also protected a sample of Will's nano-particles. Max infers that Will and Evelyn's consciousnesses are still alive within the active nano-particles, giving the world a second chance at Transcendence.

Cast
Johnny Depp as Dr. Will Caster, an artificial intelligence researcher.
Morgan Freeman as Joseph Tagger, an FBI agent.[4]
Rebecca Hall as Evelyn Caster, Will's wife and a fellow academic.[5]
Kate Mara as Bree[4]
Cillian Murphy as Donald Buchanan, an FBI agent.[6]
Cole Hauser as Colonel Stevens, a military officer[7]
Paul Bettany as Max Waters, Will's best friend.[4]
Clifton Collins, Jr. as Martin[8]
Cory Hardrict as Joel Edmund, a member of the R.I.F.T. Unit.[6]
Production
Development
Transcendence is directed by cinematographer Wally Pfister in his directorial debut. Jack Paglen wrote the initial screenplay for Pfister to direct,[nb 1] and producer Annie Marter pitched the film to Straight Up Films.[10] The pitch was sold to Straight Up. By March 2012, Alcon Entertainment acquired the project.[11] Alcon financed and produced the film; producers from Straight Up and Alcon joined together for the film. In the following June, director Christopher Nolan, for whom Pfister has worked as cinematographer, and Nolan's producing partner Emma Thomas joined the film as executive producers.[10]

Financing
The Chinese company DMG Entertainment entered a partnership with Alcon Entertainment to finance and produce the film. While DMG contributed Chinese elements to Looper and Iron Man 3, it did not do so for Transcendence.[12]

Casting
By October 2012, actor Johnny Depp entered negotiations to star in Transcendence.[13] The Hollywood Reporter said Depp would have "a mammoth payday" with a salary of $20 million versus 15 percent of the film's gross. Pfister met with Noomi Rapace for the film's female lead role and also met with James McAvoy and Tobey Maguire for the other male lead role. The director offered a supporting role to Christoph Waltz.[14] In March 2013, Rebecca Hall was cast as the female lead.[5] By the following April, actors Paul Bettany, Kate Mara, and Morgan Freeman joined the main cast.[4]

Filming
Continuing his advocacy for the use of film stock over digital cinematography, Pfister chose to shoot the film in the anamorphic format on 35mm film.[15] The film went through a traditional photochemical finish instead of a digital intermediate.[16] In addition to film, a digital master was completed in 4K resolution, and the film was additionally released in IMAX film format. Transcendence also will get a 3D release in China.[17] Filming officially began in June 2013,[18] and took place over a period of 62 days.[19]

Music
The musical score for the film composed by Mychael Danna was released on April 15, through WaterTower Music. A CD format of the score was released through Amazon.com.

Theatrical run
Transcendence was released in theaters on April 18, 2014. It was originally scheduled for April 25, 2014.[20]

Warner Bros. distributed the film in the United States and and will distribute it in United Kindgom. Summit Entertainment (through Lionsgate) is distributing it in other territories, except for China and Germany.[21] DMG Entertainment, who collaborated with Alcon Entertainment to finance and develop Transcendence, will distribute the film in China.[12] The Chinese version includes a 3D and IMAX 3D release, funded by DMG, which is done in post-production.[22]

Critical reception
Transcendence received mostly negative and mixed reviews. Critics found the film to be hampered by poor logic and storytelling.[23][24] The film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes scored the film with 19% based on a survey of 143 reviews assessed as positive or negative. It assessed 116 as negative and 27 as positive.[25] Rotten Tomatoes said of the critics' consensus: "In his directorial debut, ace cinematographer Wally Pfister remains a distinctive visual stylist, but Transcendence's thought-provoking themes exceed the movie's narrative grasp."[25] The similar website Metacritic surveyed 44 critics and gave the film an aggregate score of 42 out of 100, which it said indicates "mixed or average" reviews. Metacritic assessed 25 reviews as mixed, eight as negative, and eight as positiveHERO DYD